Murray Bramwell<\/p>\n
Here Lies Love \u2013 A Song Cycle
\nMusic by David Byrne and Fat Boy Slim<\/p>\n
Ridley Centre, Royal Adelaide Showground
\nMarch 11. Tickets $59 – $20. Bookings BASS 131 246
\nUntil March 14.<\/p>\n
By way of preface to Here Lies Love, David Byrne wonders how people can justify \u201ctheir nastier behaviours to themselves\u201d – but twenty four songs and a reprise later, we are still not any the wiser. Imelda Marcos is both an interesting subject and an unlikely one, and that is the potential appeal of Byrne\u2019s idiosyncratic project. He is proposing that Imelda is no more the sum of her shoes than Jackie Kennedy was just a collection of pillbox hats. <\/p>\n
We get plenty of backstory \u2013 her origins in genteel poverty, her doting nanny Estrelle, her Scarlett O\u2019Hara determination to get ahead in the world. She wins second prize in a beauty contest and declares herself the winner \u2013 rather like Ferdinand Marcos\u2019 rigged election. Ferdy courts her in eleven whirlwind days as, destined by fate, they become the King and Queen of Hearts. Imelda is kitsch and cruel, enterprising, and in her \u201chandbag diplomacy\u201d – visiting Gaddafi, Kissinger, and a string of US presidents – politically astute.<\/p>\n
In a venue set up as part dance club, part conventional theatre, Byrne narrates Imelda\u2019s story in a series of off-the-cuff links between songs that are, at once, disarming, unfocused and time-consuming. A barrage of photo images unfolds on the large screen behind the concert stage where an excellent band, featuring percussion and keyboards, supports impressive vocalists Dana Diaz-Tutaan (Imelda) Ganda Suthivarakom (Estrella) and the impish Mr Byrne himself. The songs, while co-written with Fat Boy Slim, bear strong Byrne signatures \u2013 catchy tunes, punchy rhythms and animated vocals. <\/p>\n
But there is little evidence of director Marianne Weems here. Is Byrne\u2019s casually consulted clipboard a rejection of the slick narrative connections that are the dreary convention of the usual cabaret biog, or evidence of a show underdone ? The abundance of new songs is a treat for David Byrne admirers \u2013 but many cover similar threads in Imelda\u2019s early life and her abandonment of the faithful Estrella, leaving us to make large inferences about the complicity of the American government in the Marcos story and no time to reflect on the downhill ride. There are intriguing ironies in David Byrne\u2019s approach to Imelda but we need more perspective and contrast. Here Lies Love is a likeable concert \u2013 full of good tunes and unfathomable ambiguities. It may yet be a terrific show, with perceptive themes and liberating anti-theatrical elements, but at the moment, the festival is hosting an uncertain work in progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cA steel butterfly still emerging\u201d The Australian, March 13, 2006. p.16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Murray Bramwell Here Lies Love \u2013 A Song Cycle Music by David Byrne and Fat Boy Slim Ridley Centre, Royal Adelaide Showground March 11. Tickets $59 – $20. Bookings BASS 131 246 Until March 14. By way of preface to Here Lies Love, David Byrne wonders how people can justify \u201ctheir nastier behaviours to themselves\u201d – but twenty four songs and a reprise later, we are still not any the wiser. Imelda Marcos is both an interesting subject and an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions\/853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}